Interview:Â The Menstrual Cramps
We’ve interviewed The Menstrual Cramps ahead of their appearance at our show on 8 March at The Fiddler’s Elbow, Camden!Â
Can you describe your music in a few short words?
Our music is riot grrrl style, feminist punk, shouting about things that make us angry (like our government and climate change) and issues we support like female empowerment and left-wing ideologies!
How did you all meet & decide to form The Menstrual Cramps?
Robyn and Cooper met through YouTube when they were teen vloggers and started making videos together. Cooper later moved to Bristol and matched with Emilia on Tinder, found out they lived 5 doors away from each other, so Emilia invited Cooper to her house party and then a month later they decided to move in together! Cooper introduced Robyn and Emilia via a WhatsApp group chat and then a house party in London, then Emilia moved down the road from Robyn and her girlfriend. We all met Daniel when we replied to his drummer ad on Gumtree, we met at a rehearsal studio and jammed with him for a few hours and knew he was a great fit for the band. The wonders of the internet brought us all together!
When Emilia and Cooper moved in together Cooper was always writing and playing music in her room, Emilia got fired from her job and was angry, so Cooper told her to channel the anger into a song. That’s when we wrote and recorded My Bush Aint Your Business, it took us a couple of hours in Cooper’s bedroom. When our housemates came home we showed them our song, they all loved it and said we should start a band, so we kind of did. We wrote a few more songs but we both were made homeless so couldn’t record them or start working on them seriously. Cooper then moved to London and set up her recording equipment again, we asked Robyn to come be our guitarist and then whenever we would hang out and get angry and political we would write and record songs and music videos together.
Spice Girls 100% percent, love 90s girl power, we all grew up singing their songs and choosing which Spice Girl we were, being in girl gangs, we play them at every party even now! We are also inspired by No Doubt, Pussy Riot, The Cramps (hence our band name), Girlpool, Blondie, The Prettiots, Hole, Joan Jett, Bikini Kill, L7, The Slits, Xray Spex, Robots In Disguise, The Kills, Laura Marling, Siouxsie Sioux, Bratmobile, Sex Pistols, Peaches, Amanda Palmer… there’s loads of amazing artists who influence and inspire us. Also our amazing friends inspire us daily and our feminist rants definitely influence a lot of our songs.
What exciting things did you get up to in the last year?
In the last year we basically started The Menstrual Cramps! We gained band members, wrote and recorded a whole debut album, recorded music videos for our YouTube channel, met some really cool people who interviewed us and just worked our butts off to make this debut album be awesome!
What have we got to look forward to from The Menstrual Cramps this year?
So we’ve just released our debut album We’re Not Ovaryacting, which we’re super excited about! Our first gig is with you guys on IWD which we cannot wait for!!!! After that we’re just gonna be rehearsing and gigging around London, we wanna do a gig in Bristol in the Summer but more details on that to come! We’re gonna still be writing new material ready for a future album, I’m sure with the current political and world happenings we’ll have lots to comment on! But yeah for now just focusing on getting our debut album out there and gigging as much as poss!
What is your take on the state of women’s representation in music right now?
The music industry is a man’s world, it’s owned by men, controlled by men and dominated by male artists. We see so many amazing female artists out there who just aren’t getting the recognition and opportunities they deserve. That’s why things like Who Run The World and Loud Women are so important, they give a much needed and much deserved platform to women in music, both on stage and off stage. Music services and companies need to listen to us, female bands and musicians deserved to be heard and have the same opportunities as their male counterparts, and if they don’t listen then we’ll just shout louder!
(Assuming you are!) Why are you particularly looking forward to playing this show on 8th March in collaboration with Loud Women for International Women’s Day?
We are soooo excited to play your show! You guys are doing great things for women in music and we appreciate it so much! We’re so grateful for this opportunity and we are so stoked that the gig is on International Women’s Day! As a riot grrrl band, feminism is at the forefront of everything we do, and we’re so happy to be celebrating IWD with amazing female musicians showcasing their talents.
Where can people listen to your music & buy merch?
Our debut album We’re Not Ovaryacting is available to stream on Spotify and to digitally download on Amazon, iTunes and Google Play. We’re currently drawing up some t-shirt designs but if you keep an eye on our social media accounts you’ll be able to find out when they’re available to buy!
Catch The Menstrual Cramps at their **first ever!!** London show on 8th March. RSVP & invite now at https://bit.ly/gigrsvp
